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The great British Summer…There’s absolutely no guarantee of hot weather but you can always have a good time. From this week going forward I’ll be working 3 days a week (rather than 5) and I intend on making the most of August, exploring many of the wonderful sights/attractions the UK has to offer. Here’s my bucket list for Summer 2017:

Mayfield Lavender Fields – If you’re on Instagram you can’t escape these gorgeous lavender fields. They are Insta perfect and something I definitely want to see. A little over an hour from London, in Surrey, it’s pretty easy to get to.

Parkside Fruit Picking – I feel like S is finally old enough to appreciate and enjoy fruit picking. My cousins have been doing it for years and now he can join them 🙂

Warwick Castle – Which child wouldn’t like to dress up as a knight and feel like part of a castle? S has the costume and Warwick has the castle. And during the summer, kids can watch Horrible Histories live on stage in the truly unique Wicked Warwick Show!

Go Ape (Alexandre Palace) – Go Apes newest venue at Ally Pally now has Tree Tops Junior. S is a bit of a monkey and I think he’d absolutely love walking high up and ziplining through trees.

Snozoneuk – While our summers aren’t always hot, our winters aren’t extreme either which means S hasn’t seen proper snow yet. At Snozone, you can feel like you’re in The Alps while only being an hour up the M1 from London.

Camber Sands – Back in May we visited Brighton Beach and while that was cool, a sandy beach will always beat a pebble beach. Fingers crossed we have one more heat wave before school starts in September and we will be down at Camber Sands in a jiffy.

Emirates Cable Cars – For the gorgeous views of London and the thrill of riding high up suspended in the air.

Of course this is a limited list…London and the surrounding counties have to much to offer. I’d love to hear what adventures you’re having this summer…

When you live in the UK, you take advantage of every sunny day you get! A couple of weeks ago we had some glorious weather so decided to head down to Brighton Beach one Sunday. I’ve been to Brighton once before – years ago and by train – I expected it to take about 90 minutes from North London (it took 2 ½ hours). I thought it would be crazy busy and parking would be a problem but it wasn’t too bad. Rather than drive around looking for a spot, we parked at the High Street car park (approx. £8 for up to 4 hours) and it was about a 5-7 minute walk down to the beach.
We walked along the pier taking in all the sights before ending up at Palm Court Restaurant for lunch. Beware of the sea gulls!! A lady made the mistake of leaving her food unattended for 10 seconds – before she knew it the hovering birds swept down and grabbed her fish and chips – ruthless! Although Palm Court is right in the heart of the pier, I can’t say I was totally impressed by it. My mum and I ordered the classic fish and chips. There was far too much batter on the fish and the chips were not hot or crispy. My dad had the vegetarian lasagne which was quite stodgy. The only saving grace was S’s kids meal which he seemed to enjoy (chicken nuggets, chips and beans). Our order also took quite a while to arrive (our neighbours ordered after us and were half way through their meal before ours arrived) and we had to ask for condiments at least 3 times. Apart from the fact that we got to sit in the glorious sunshine right on the pier, the meal wasn’t particularly memorable.
Walking along the pier you end up at a fun fair / arcade. Look out for the various height restrictions so you know what your kids can go on. We bought S an unlimited band – £10 for all the kiddie rides he could go on. We started with the carousel. As he is between 0.90 and 1.20 meters, I had to go on with him but I wasn’t charged. We went on the helter skelter together and again I wasn’t charged. That was my favourite as it sits right on the edge of the pier so glance down and around and all you see if the gorgeous blue sea. He then went on the tea cup ride, the mini transports ride, the inflatable slide and the trampolines. Next on his agenda was rock throwing on the beach. It’s funny how a lot of the times we’re trying to create fun experiences for our children when they are actually happiest doing the simple things. Brighton Beach is a pebble (read rock) beach. Not super comfortable to sit on but it provides the best rock throwing opportunities. S stood at the edge of the water seeing how far he could throw rocks for about 30 minutes. We finally got up, walked across to Starbucks for some coffee before we headed back home.
Although it was a great day out, I’m going to look for a nice sandy beach not far from London for the next time we have a bit of a heat wave…although living in the UK, I could be waiting all summer! 😉
Fun Facts! 👆

One of the things I’ve really battled with this summer is many people thinking it is okay for S to eat ice cream and lollipops all the time. Before I get virtual dirty looks, let me just say the odd ice cream/lollipop is fine but it’s the habit that worries me.

We spent 6 weeks travelling earlier this summer and on more than one occasion, S was offered ice cream, cheese balls, lollipops and other very sweet food stuff even when I expressed my reluctance. I now have an almost 2 1/2 year old who routinely opens the freezer saying “mama, ice cream.”

“He’s on holiday…”

“It’s the summer and it’s so hot…”

“One won’t hurt…”

These are the lines I’ve heard all summer and every time I’ve tried to explain my reasons for not indulging S, it has fallen on deaf ears. And then I saw this video.

It describes exactly how I feel. Of course, parents are not the only factor to blame for unhealthy eating habits but I do believe that eating habits start during childhood. That’s not to say that they don’t change over the course of a child’s life but we have our whole lives to eat what we like, why start at 2 1/2 has always been my argument.

I’m quite lucky S actually loves fruit and so I’d much rather he get his sugars from there.